Recurrence of neuroleptic malignant syndrome

Abstract

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare idiosyncratic reaction associated with the use of neuroleptics that has an incidence of 0.02 to 3% among patients taking these drugs. This is a very serious complication with a mortality rate that reaches 10-20%. It is therefore very important to have high clinical suspicion and use appropriate criteria to objectify this clinical picture early, stopping the medication causing the picture and to avoid the subsequent complications as much as possible that would be responsible for both its mortality and sequels. We present that case of an 81-year old woman who was admitted to the Psychiatric Hospitalization Unit (PHU) for a depressive episode with psychotic symptoms who developed a neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) when Haloperidol was introduced. After its suspension and subsequent clinical recovery, antipsychotic treatment with Risperidone was reintroduced and she suffered a recurrence of NMS. Finally, significant improvement was achieved with several sessions of electroshock therapy (EST).